Rahm Emanuel tells banks don’t do business with gun-makers

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has taken bully politics to a new level by telling area banks to cut off lines of credit to gun manufacturers if the gun-makers won’t voice their support massive gun control measures.

In a letter he sent out Friday to Bank of America and TD Bank, according to a Chicago CBS News affiliate, Emanuel wrote:

In the past, the gun industry has stood in opposition to these safety measures. They opposed a ban on assault weapons on America’s streets, opposed a ban on military-style clips, opposed a criminal background check on all gun purchases and opposed any effort to crack down on criminal gun traffickers.

TD Bank provides a $60 million revolving line of credit to Smith & Wesson, which produces an AR-15 model; Bank of America provides Sturm, Ruger & Co. a $25 million line of credit.

In his letter to TD Bank, Emanuel continues, ”I ask you to use your influence to push this company to find common ground with the vast majority of Americans who support a military weapons and ammunition ban and comprehensive background checks.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

In addition to the strong-arming, Emanuel’s letter is wholly disingenuous. He says “the vast majority of Americans” favor “a military weapons” ban, yet the AR-15, which he finds so objectionable, is not a military weapon.

In a USA Today poll conducted in December, 51 percent of those polled did not want a ban on so-called assault weapons such as the AR-15..

Emanuel, as a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is a proponent of strict gun control laws of the sort he’s put in place for his own city. It hasn’t always worked out for him, though. CNSNews reported in December that gun shootings spiked 49 percent in November despite the Windy City’s strict gun laws.

“Doing business with gun manufacturers might benefit the banks’ bottom line, but they put our police officers, our children, and our communities at risk,” Emanuel said in a Friday statement per Politico.

When Emanuel was President Obama’s chief of staff, he was famously quoted as saying, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” He’s using bully tactics to play December’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for everything he can get.